PARALYMPICS Ireland's Jason Smyth eases into T13 100m Paralympic final in world record time

Irish sprinter Jason Smyth ran a new Paralympic world record time of 10.81sec in qualifying for tonight's final of the T13 100m (Visually Impaired category) in Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium his morning. In doing so the twenty year old athlete shaved four hundreths of a second off the existing world's best time (10.85sec) which he himself set in May this year at the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.


Running in lane six of the second heat this morning (9.16am local time) Smyth got off to an explosive start and had half a second to spare over Zlatanov of Bulgaria (11.32sec) in second, on the line. Alexey Labzin of Russia won the other heat in 10.98sec. The Irish man and the Russian are the only two of the eight finalists to run under 11 seconds in qualifiying.


In the mixed zone afterwards Smyth said: "The world record is good but its only the heats; there's more there to come in the final. Preparations have gone well in the lead up to it, I know I'm in good shape and it's good to come out in the first round and show it."


Tonight's final in front of a packed Bird's Nest Stadium is due off at 5.45pm local time (10.45am Irish time). Smyth will race in lane four with Labzin alongside in five bidding for podium glory.



For Further Information contact the press officers to the Irish team:
Sinéad McElroy, smcelroy@irishsportscouncil.ie 087-6338512 or 008613911678098
John Fulham, communications@pcireland.ie 087-2709182 or 008613911678366